I don't really use cigalikes all that often anymore, but I wouldn't object to their makers being prevented from making wildly, laughably inaccurate claims about the "cigarette equivalent" of their cartos and disposables.
When I was first making the switch, these labeling practices caused me a lot of unnecessary confusion. I bought my first starter kit totally on impulse, not having done any research beforehand, so I had nothing to go on but what it said on the package. Blu said one of their cartos was equal to a pack of cigarettes, and N-Joy said the same thing about their disposables. So, not knowing any better, and based on my previous cigarette intake, I assumed this meant that one of either would last me a day and a half to two days, with a frequency of use equivalent to how much I used to smoke.
So imagine my surprise when neither one, even when I was using both, lasted a full day. There I am thinking "Jeez, I don't feel like I'm overdosed on nicotine, but according to what it says on the packages, I've had the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes today, so my nicotine level should be four times what it normally is." I had no way of knowing (because I hadn't yet taken the time to find out) that the "cigarette equivalent" they put on the package refers only to the amount of nicotine in the carto, a good deal of which never gets vaporized, or that you have to vape far more often than you smoked in order to maintain the same nic level in your bloodstream. Or, for that matter, that if you vape the same way you smoked, your lungs absorb less of the nicotine to begin with. So there I am, thinking I'm at four times my normal nicotine level, when I was probably at something like 20% of normal when all the variables are taken into consideration.
Eventually, I just said "Screw it, I don't want to smoke anymore, so I'm going to vape as much and as often as I need in order to feel satisfied." Obviously, I wound up spending way more money than I needed to in the first couple weeks, but I got off cigarettes, and that's all that matters. At the same time, however, I hate to think about the possibility that other people in my position, being similarly misled and confused by "cigarette equivalent" product labeling that's completely fictional in terms of real-world usage, might just give up on the whole thing and go back to smoking. Hence, this is one area where I believe a requirement for more accurate (or at least less inaccurate) product labeling on e-cigs might be a beneficial thing overall.
When I was first making the switch, these labeling practices caused me a lot of unnecessary confusion. I bought my first starter kit totally on impulse, not having done any research beforehand, so I had nothing to go on but what it said on the package. Blu said one of their cartos was equal to a pack of cigarettes, and N-Joy said the same thing about their disposables. So, not knowing any better, and based on my previous cigarette intake, I assumed this meant that one of either would last me a day and a half to two days, with a frequency of use equivalent to how much I used to smoke.
So imagine my surprise when neither one, even when I was using both, lasted a full day. There I am thinking "Jeez, I don't feel like I'm overdosed on nicotine, but according to what it says on the packages, I've had the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes today, so my nicotine level should be four times what it normally is." I had no way of knowing (because I hadn't yet taken the time to find out) that the "cigarette equivalent" they put on the package refers only to the amount of nicotine in the carto, a good deal of which never gets vaporized, or that you have to vape far more often than you smoked in order to maintain the same nic level in your bloodstream. Or, for that matter, that if you vape the same way you smoked, your lungs absorb less of the nicotine to begin with. So there I am, thinking I'm at four times my normal nicotine level, when I was probably at something like 20% of normal when all the variables are taken into consideration.
Eventually, I just said "Screw it, I don't want to smoke anymore, so I'm going to vape as much and as often as I need in order to feel satisfied." Obviously, I wound up spending way more money than I needed to in the first couple weeks, but I got off cigarettes, and that's all that matters. At the same time, however, I hate to think about the possibility that other people in my position, being similarly misled and confused by "cigarette equivalent" product labeling that's completely fictional in terms of real-world usage, might just give up on the whole thing and go back to smoking. Hence, this is one area where I believe a requirement for more accurate (or at least less inaccurate) product labeling on e-cigs might be a beneficial thing overall.
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